


Duan Tianying

by whatisthesoulofaman



Category: John Wick (Movies), 许你浮生若梦 | Xǔ Nǐ Fú Shēng Ruò Mèng | Granting You a Dreamlike Life (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, I pick and choose and remake canon as I please, I'm so sorry Luo Fusheng, does it count as an OC when it's essentially the same character with a different name?, most characters from gyadl is mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:20:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatisthesoulofaman/pseuds/whatisthesoulofaman
Summary: After her husband dies, Lin Ruomeng didn't know what she was going to do with herself. Thankfully, he had one last way to take care of her.When that was gone too, she knew what to do.
Relationships: Duan Tianying | Lin Ruomeng/Luo Fusheng
Kudos: 3





	Duan Tianying

**Author's Note:**

> Oops, that Japanese spies plot arc was very inspiring.

Lin Ruomeng was barely able to pay attention when the car hit a low ledge. She practically fell out the vehicle, grasping at her bloodied torso. Getting herself upright she looked down to see her entire front drenched in blood.

She reached inside her  Fusheng’s jacket, pulling out her phone. It took no effort to find the video she was looking for.

_ “Teaching Ruomeng to drive my bike!” _ The tinny speakers played. The screen showed a grinning Luo Fusheng, who then switched to camera mode to capture her own slightly terrified expression as she sat on his motorcycle.  _ “Remember if you hurt my ride you’re paying to repair her.”  _ The small image of her turned to glare at him. 

He always talked a big game, but he did trust her. With his motorcycle, his aching vulnerability after he hid it away for so long,  _ his heart _ -

She felt herself leaning sideways, and when she was unable to keep herself up, Ruomeng let the darkness take her.

**Duan Tianying**

  
  


She woke to the sound of an alarm clock.

Ruomeng quickly shut it off, turning to stare at the ceiling for a moment. She flipped the covers off of her and hiked up a handful of her borrowed pajamas so she wouldn’t step on the excess when she got up.

It was criminal how much taller than her Luo Fusheng had been.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw his round sunglasses still on his bedside table. The wooden Ling Bo Xian Zi and clay cake topper on the mantle.

Her wedding ring when she made tea. 

She leaned against the bathroom sink, trying to get ready, but failing because....

Because…

_ She was pressed against his back, Fusheng laughing as he easily drove his motorcycle. Her and him hand in hand as they walked by the riverside. _

_ The blood draining out of his face, suddenly unable to keep himself upright as she tried to break his fall. _

_ The beginning of this battle him smirking in the face of a devastating prognosis. The end of this battle him lying in a hospital bed, too weak to move, her lying beside him pressing his face to her neck. Their family rushing in, the noise. Her desperately petting his face, her tears, the monitor let out a continuous wail. _

She listened to his old phonograph as she got ready. When she was done she shut off the antique with infinite gentleness and went to wait just outside her door. Ruomeng watched the rain.

Her brother’s car pulled up, and just like how the rest of her morning has been, she slowly walked up to it.

Lin Qikai didn’t ask her how she was doing. He knew. And he felt the same. They drove in silence the entire time.

* * *

Ruomeng stared blankly as she saw the casket being lowered. She felt her father’s hands on her shoulders. Her brother pressed against the arm not holding the umbrella.

She heard crying behind her; Fusheng’s associates from the Hong family business before it failed, Xu Xingyuan, Luo Cheng stifling his tears. Hong Lan had buried her face in her father’s shoulder, Hong Zhenbao looked on with a grief she couldn’t even begin to decipher. Xu Xingcheng gave her a terribly bittersweet look over Xingyuan’s head.

None of them said anything. They had already spoken everything they could. They’ve said their desperate apologies, whispered conversation, and choked laughter. They all stared at the mound of dirt and headstone.

Ruomeng isn’t sure how long they stood there. She stepped away from her family and turned around when she heard the sobbing slowing, maybe to say they should go, but she needed  _ control _ she needed to  _ take care _ \- her father’s hands on her shoulders again and him saying he would handle it. 

A shimmer of anger burned through the emptiness. 

She ignored it in favor of following them. She lagged behind and just watched her father’s hand on uncle Hong’s shoulder, Uncle Hong’s arm around Hong Lan, and her brother by her side. Xu Xingcheng, so different now than...before, his arm around his sister. Luo Cheng telling his brothers-in-arms that Luo Fusheng wouldn’t want them to cry over him so buck up and-

Liao Na stepped out in front of her. “Please restrain your grief and accept fate.” She said. “I hope you’re holding up.” She added.

Ruomeng just remained silent. She wasn’t, and the question ‘why him, why Fusheng’ ran through her head for the millionth time.

Liao Na nodded understandingly. Lin Ruomeng really was not in the right mindset to deal with her, and she quickly asked why she was really here.

“Is it really so wrong to check on a friend?” Liao Na asked. Ruomeng couldn’t help but tense, how did she even really find out her real name anyway, as she said goodbye and walked away.

She stood there for a long moment. 

For the rest of the day she couldn’t get the interaction out of her head. She felt sick how relieved she felt at the distraction.

* * *

  
  


She was lying curled up in a ball on the couch, trying to distract herself from the silence in the house, when she got the text from Luo Cheng.

At first she thought he just wanted to talk, maybe she could finally do something besides everyone feeling sorry for her, but all the text was a small preview of a video. She tapped it.

“ _ Hey Ruomeng _ .” Luo Fusheng said. She shot up into a sitting position, desperately holding her phone. The screen was shaking. The video showed him in the hospital, he was too pale and she could hear his trembling breaths, but she knew this was before his health took a turn for the worst-

“ _ I made this because...I’m not sure I can win this one, Ruomeng _ .  _ I asked Luo Cheng to send this to you if I passed, so if you’re seeing this...I’m so sorry. _ ”

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. She pressed her hand to her mouth and tried to hold back her tears.

She didn’t succeed.

“ _ And, I would say don’t miss me that much, but I know you. _ ” He said, huffing. “ _ You’ve never listened to me, and never contented yourself with me tell you what to do not even once _ .”

As much as she wanted to say it wasn’t that bad, she couldn’t deny the fact they had met over an incident involving dumplings, him making a very bad first impression, and her refusing to give him said dumplings.

But the video continued. 

“ _ So I’m going to ask you, can you please take care of them all? My foster father, Hong Lan, Xu Xingcheng, your brother and everyone else? I know you will, but…”  _ He sighed. “ _ It would make me feel better if I asked.” _ He admitted. Even when he was gone, he was still sharing secrets with her. Still showing her his underbelly beneath the defensive layers of his rude behavior and fists. “ _ I saw you after your adoptive father’s death. You needed something to do, something to focus on.” _

Ruomeng gave up trying to hold back her tears. Fusheng had been the one there for her after. Tianci had been buried in his own grief, she hadn’t found her biological family yet, and Xu Xingcheng had been...he had been…

She couldn’t think of that now. The only reason she had forgiven him was because Fusheng did, but that didn’t mean she ever had to be comfortable around him ever again.

“ _ You needed something to do, so could you...could you start with this?”  _ He asked, his voice going much quieter and more fragile in a way she knew wasn’t the sickness’ fault. “ _ Do you remember me telling you about that place? The dance club my foster father owned where I lived for a while?” _

How could she forget? How could she forget that morning they were in bed, the topsheet over their head, warm light filtering through the material, her begging him to tell her more about him? How could she forget anything he had said then?

Mei Gao Mei had been Luo Fusheng’s home.

“ _ It was for sale.” _ Fusheng laughed with a slight disbelieving edge to it. She always knew what it looked like, since she saw and heard it whenever she reminded him she loved or appreciated him. “ _ I bought Mei Gao Mei _ .” 

The smile on her face was soaked with tears and hysterical, but genuine.

“ _ I want you to have it, Lin Ruomeng.”  _ He continued. 

“Of course, Fusheng,  _ of course _ .” She said, hoarse. She’ll make sure Mei Gao Mei will have shows again. She will make sure this place Luo Fusheng loved is restored to its former glory. 

“ _ Thank you. Goodbye, Ruomeng. _ ” He finally said. His eyes looked red and glassy, and he nodded once. Words had never been his strongpoint, but he had got his point across perfectly well.

He loved her enough to give her this precious piece of his history, to remake it when he wasn’t there to see it.

Lin Ruomeng sat there, phone pressed to her forehead, and sobbed.

After the moment passed she stood up, steps wobbly as she headed towards the stand that had Fusheng’s phonograph on it, opened the drawer, and shifted it’s contents until she found the key and lifted it with a trembling hand.

Luo Fusheng, once she had lived with him, was very predictable with where he put valuable things. 

She tightly held the key and did not let go for the rest of the night.

* * *

  
  


The next morning, as soon as she remembered, she threw the blankets off of her and wasted no time getting dressed. She was still eating breakfast when she shot a quick text to her brother. 

He was there in 10 minutes flat. 

She quickly explained the video while Qikai drove her. His grip on the steering wheel shook, but the ride was steady the entire time.

They both quickly shuffled out of the car when they arrived. She took a long moment to just...look at the building.

Before Fusheng bought it, it had sat empty for years. The windows were boarded up, graffiti littering the front, the neon signs declaring it Mei Gao Mei was long burnt out and halfway to falling.

She heard her brother’s breath catch. She forgot he would know this place too. Ruomeng quickly grabbed her brother’s hand. 

After making quick work of unlocking the doors, they both walked inside. 

Structurally, the building seemed fine. Although the piles of garbage everywhere, pests, and superficial damage would take a massive clean-up effort on it’s own. Not to mention redecorating, hiring, and maintaining an establishment.

Lin Ruomeng was so excited to get started. Lin Qakai reminded her that they agreed to only survey the damage today.

His winning card to actually being able to persuade her from changing her mind was the promise he could show her Fusheng’s old room.

Said room was as dirty and damaged as the others. A broken table lay on it’s side, where Fusheng’s phonograph once sat her brother explained, a once beautiful chair beside it. 

Broken frames were littered around a dingy bed, who knows what horrors it’s seen since it’s owner’s disappearance, and the whole room just seemed like it was being choked by dust.

Ruomeng felt a sense of melancholy. This abandoned, filthy room was once Luo Fusheng’s. And she will do everything she can to see what he saw in this place.

* * *

Lin Ruomeng was...smiling. 

She looked up from sweeping the floor to look around the room. Xu Xingyuan and Lin Qikai were also sweeping, her father and uncle Hong pointing at the walls and discussing the moulding trim, Hong Lan sat in a folding chair pouring over furniture magazines, and the rest bringing in materials to start fixing the walls. 

She suddenly wasn’t surprised at all with the smile on her face. Her family, all together, fixing this place that they had known. All of them together and still grieving, but still hoping to fulfill this last wish of someone that meant so much to them all.

For a brief moment, it felt like she could think of the future again.

* * *

They were almost finished with the restoration when a group of men walked up to her. 

She used her free hand to grasp her shoulder bag’s straps, her posture going still and defensive.

“That building yours?” One of them asked. The other men smirked.

At first she tried to walk away, but they blocked her way. 

“Why does it matter to you?” She asked. She wished she had her-

“How much?” Leader finally asked.

“My building is not for sale.” She snippily said. Ruomeng was about to walk again when the leader blocked her way.

“Aw, c’mon, I’d make sure it’s worth your while.” He said, a disgusting grin on his face. He crowded her space, obviously intending to corner her to a wall, and she didn’t hesitate to lift her and use the ball of her hand to smash his nose. The only wall pinning she allowed was strictly between Fusheng and her.

He sharply recoiled, bleeding and furious, when another man pulled him back.

“You’ve made your point. Have a nice day.” He said, pulling the leader away and the rest of the men following.

She stared at their retreating backs until they disappeared. Then she made a detour from where she was going.

* * *

She made quick work of braiding her hair. After shifting it behind her shoulder, she wasted no time hitting the punching bag. 

In her mind she had no trouble picturing her assailants as she punched, dodged, and kicked the bag. The soothing familiarity of where to hit, weak points, and centers of gravity to use to fell even the bulkiest of people. 

_ Hit, kick, dodge, remember the kneecaps, dodge, remember the gun. _

She clenched her teeth as the process continued,  _ opening to get their crotch, hit, center of gravity, kick _ , and it was only when she felt her limbs start feeling like jelly she stopped.

She grabbed a towel from her bag and tried to mop up the worst of the sweat off of her. For a long moment she just breathed heavily.

* * *

Ruomeng was quietly checking her emails in her newly-finished office. In fact, most of Mei Gao Mei was well on it’s way to being finished.

So much so she was pouring over applications. She wrote down names and phone numbers to call tomorrow in the dark and silence.

Suddenly there was a shattering noise. 

She jumped up from her chair, yanked open a drawer to grab her switchblade, and cautiously exited the room. 

When Ruomeng reached the main floor, she saw two shadowy figures. Then, excruciating pain in the back of her neck. She collapsed on the floor.

One of the figures took a couple of swings at her, while the other kicked her in the face.

“Normally, I don’t hit ladies, but I think you proved you weren’t one.” The one who had kicked her said, and  _ dammit _ it was that stupid kid who wanted to buy Mei Gao Mei. “You made the place so pretty for us!” he added, leaning in close and grabbing a fistful of her hair.

She sank her blade into his arm.

He howled in pain; letting go of her hair and grasping his arm. She grinned through the pain and her blood, and spat the blood in her mouth in his face.

“You will  _ never _ have Mei Gao Mei.” She promised, knowing she must look downright nightmarish right now. And the kid must’ve thought so too, because he flinched back.

“You know, my interest in this building was passing at best, but now I think I have a far better idea for what to do with it.” He motioned his cronies over. “Say your goodbyes now.” 

One more solid punch and she was out.

* * *

Lin Ruomeng woke up to her world on fire. 

She desperately coughed to dispel the smoke that settled in her lungs and staggered to her feet. Gasoline drenched the floor. 

Mei Gao Mei was on fire. 

“Dammit!” She yelled, frantically looking for her phone to no avail. “No no no no no no nO NO NO NO  _ NO NO NO!” _ She screamed, aiming to get back to her office but-

“RUOMENG!” Lin Qikai screamed. He ran into her and almost knocked her over. 

“We have to call the fire department, big brother, we have to call now-” She explained, grabbing her brother’s suit lapels and shaking him.

He physically picked her up. 

“What are you doing?!” Ruomeg screamed. “We have to get to a phone, we have to save-”

“Not before you’re safe!” he screamed back, hauling her towards the door. She could only scream as she saw the building that Luo Fusheng loved so much burn.

* * *

The fire department...never came.

Her and Qikai stood there for hours. As the building burned and melted and collapsed under the raging inferno, they could only stare in horror.

In the end, the fire gutted the building. All that remained was a few walls, the charred remains, and piles of rubble.

Lin Ruomeng still hadn’t stopped crying. Qikai held her through it all, but she could tell he was devastated too.

When the sun rose, she walked up to the remains. She stood there for a long moment, collapsed onto her knees, and screamed.

* * *

Despite her breakdown, she was silent the entire ride home. Qikai bravely held back his tears for her, but she was too numb to notice.

She held out her hand, and held the key to Mei Gao Mei. Her fingers trembled as she held it.

They had destroyed Mei Gao Mei. They had ruined something her entire family had poured so much time and effort and love into.

They had destroyed Fusheng’s final gift to her. He had given this to her because he trusted her, because he knew she would need something after he was gone. 

Now it was a burned husk of what it was meant to be.

Lin Ruomeng clenched her hand around the key, and didn’t even feel the blood from the new cut.

* * *

Chai Heng whooped loudly as they swerved into his father’s garage. They came to an abrupt stop, and continued to hoot and holler all the way to the mansion’s huge living room. The family butler had an exasperated look that even they could tell meant he almost didn’t want to know what they had gotten up to.

Chai Heng gleefully showed him the pictures on his phone.

Hui Ma went pale.

* * *

  
  


Lin Ruomeng carefully got off the bus. This was one trip she couldn’t have her family driving her to.

She walked inside the fire department building. She walked out forty-five minutes later, now armed with the knowledge of who paid them off. 

They had squealed so easily, she had spent most of that time cleaning up the mess.

She waited for the bus again.

* * *

“I need to get your father immediately.” Ma Hui said, already turning and grabbing Chai Heng’s arm. 

“What the fuck old man!” He snapped wrenching his arm away. Damn, he didn’t even know he could move that fast.

“You are in big trouble, and we need to get your father soon.” He replied, trying to grab his arm again. His attempt was dodged and met with a snarl.

“It’s just some dumb bitch! What the hell has your underwear in a twist?” He demanded. 

The butler stopped to stare for a long moment.

“That ‘dumb bitch’ is Duan Tianying.” Was all he said before he rushed up the stairs, presumingly to his father’s office. 

After several minutes, his father came stomping down the stairs.

Chai Heng just wondered what the fuck was going on.

* * *

Lin Ruomeng adjusted the crowbar in her hands. Her steps were heavy as she walked to her and Fusheng’s bedroom. 

* * *

The punch in the gut made it abundantly clear that somehow he’s messed up.

He was still doubled over when Chai Jun snatched up his phone and scrolled through the pictures. Once he had seen everything he needed to, he dropped the phone.

“I count less than a week before you’re dead.” He sighed.

“What the fuck is going on?!” he finally demanded. “Who is Duan Tianying?”

* * *

  
  


She pushed the bed out of her way. Her bedside table made a horrible scratching noise as it was caught up in the direction the bed was moving. The adrenaline pumped through her veins.

She then shoved the crowbar in the bottom moulding.

* * *

“She was...a contract of ours. Not a full employee, but she wasn’t an employee to anyone.” Chai Jun said, finishing his drink and moving closer. “Tianying is a woman of focus. Commitment. Sheer will. Something you know very little about.” He added.

Chai Heng smartly remained silent.

“They say she could kill demons if she set her mind to do so. I, myself, saw her kill three men in a bar...with a  _ bobby pin _ . A fucking bobby pin.”

* * *

  
  


The drywall collapsed under the force of a crowbar and her rage.

She half crawled into the wall to see an old, worn chest. Ruomeng pulled it out.

* * *

When Chai Jun walked away from his son, he did a poking motion to the assistant's eye. “A bobby pin.” He said again.

He poured himself another drink. “Then she asked to leave. Over love of course. She had fallen in love. I agreed if she completed...an impossible task. Something no human could have pulled off.”

He took a long drink. “The bodies she burned that day, make the foundation of what we are now.” he walked away from the bar. “Then my son, days after her husband dies, attacks her. And burns down her fucking building.”

“Father I can make this right!” Chai Heng finally said.

“How?” his father asked, condescendingly.

“I will finish what I started with her.” 

Chai Jun slapped him. “Did you not hear what I said?!” He demanded.

“I can-”

“No, you cannot. She will come. So you better leave right now, or I will kill you right now and save her the trouble.”

* * *

She opened the chest with trembling hands. 

Lin Ruomeng stared at the guns, bullets, knives, and coins for a long time.

She heard the phone ring. When she picked it up she didn’t even bother saying hello.

“Hello Tianying. I heard about what happened to your husband. Please restrain your grief and accept fate.” He said, his voice falsely casual. “I apologize for having to call like this, I had never imagined we would have to meet like this again.”

She said nothing.

“I’m hoping we can resolve this in an dignified-”

Ruomeng hung up.

* * *

Duan Tianying pushed her bangs over her forehead, and carefully fishtail braided her hair. She carefully put on her old purple shirt, and baggy overalls. Looking in the mirror, she saw a version of herself she had long thought she buried. 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of Fusheng’s jackets hanging in the closet. The black leather one with the english “A” on it. Tianying reverently touched it, before quickly putting it on.. 

She carefully picked up her gun. 

Tianying stayed close to her wall, waiting for the perfect moment to use her element of surprise. She made quick work of the first three intruders, twisting around them and shooting them in whatever body part was closest. She shot indiscriminately at all the intruders in her and Fusheng’s home.

And she was not afraid to fight dirty; given how much scratching and leaping and balls-hitting she was doing before shooting them in the head. Tianying’s senses were in overdrive trying to see and hear them before they could jump at her. She flipped a few of them over, upsetting their center of gravity, before finally shooting them.

She had a desperate fight with the one who had grabbed her kitchen knife, her  _ good _ one too, and was trying to slit her throat. Despite his attempts he was the one who ended up stabbed after their tusling. 

Duan Tianying shook and breathed heavily, before she heard the doorbell ring.

* * *

  
  


After telling the cop to essentially fuck off, they knew she didn’t like them why do they keep bothering her, she shakily called for a ‘dinner reservation’ as she fiddled with her coins.

  
  


_ “Here I feared you left this all behind.”  _ And she could get those words out of her head as she watched them clean up her house. 

As they were finishing up and loading the bodies in the car, Lu Tao came up to her and asked whether he would be hearing from her soon. She smiled, gave him his compensation, and went back inside the house without another word.

* * *

The next morning, she spent hours agonizing over the text she needed to send to her family. In the end she just wrote ‘Need to clear my head. I’ll be gone for a few days but be back soon. I love you’

It felt woefully inadequate. She could already imagine her brother’s worry. She could already see how distraught her father would be. She felt most guilty about that. He had missed so many years of her life, never stopped searching for her, and she goes and disappears on him.

Still, she packed the things she needed, and headed out to the garage. Tianying stopped at the doorway, seeing Fusheng’s motorcycle. 

Making a decision she searched for the bungee cords to secure the bag to his bike. When she made sure everything was as it should be, she swung her leg over the seat and settled there. 

She revved it up, pushed the button to open the garage door, and was on her way. 


End file.
